Sunday, August 16, 1998

Dan Glickman is at home in Washington or on the country roads

By J.T. SMITH

Farm Editor

On another hot, dusty morning in West Texas a tan van -- escorted by law officials with their blinking lights -- pulls into a ditch.

Farmers, ranchers, local ag officials, bankers, varied politicians -- and some just curious folks -- stand waiting in a cotton field across the ditch.

The doors of the van slide open; a couple of people get out, then the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

As Texas farmers cope with one of the worst droughts in the century, some had predicted a somewhat hostile crowd.

But in a matter of seconds, Dan Glickman bounds across the ditch and walks through the rows of stunted cotton plants as he shakes hands, smiles and get smiles in return.

Glickman then takes a deep breath.

"I think it will rain soon," Glickman predicts.

Farmers chuckle. But Glickman shows he actually is serious.

"No, really -- I can smell some moisture in the air -- don't you smell it?" Glickman asks the crowd.

"Smelling moisture" in the air is the way farmers talk. And Glickman knows their language.

Although it didn't look rainy at all at 9 o'clock in the morning -- late that afternoon many parts of the Big Country got a good drenching.

Although one rain wouldn't quench the effects of a months' long dry spell, it continued to rain in subsequent days. Whatever they may have thought of Glickman as the nation's top agricultural official, some had to feel he was a pretty darn good weatherman.

What's more -- if they haven't met him before -- they discovered Dan Glickman is a mighty likeable fellow.

He can be at home in a pinstriped suit with the President of the United States in the Oval Office or meeting with international leaders in his USDA Washington office. Even look downright dapper. But Glickman can be just at ease in a chambray shirt, jeans and lace-up work shoes in a cotton patch or wheat field.

"Americans are a compassionate people," Glickman says. "Whether it's hurricanes, tornadoes, floods -- or drought. And I know they will want to help our farmers and ranchers in this crisis."

As men, women and little children crowd around to shake hands with the Secretary, they can see compassion in the eyes and sincerity in the voice of Glickman.

Glickman puts in grueling days

Dan Glickman slices through 16- and 18-hour days like a young tiger, although he is now past 50.

On that particular day in Texas, Glickman was up at 5 a.m. in Abilene. He left his hotel before daybreak for the drought tour that would begin on Woody Anderson's farm outside Colorado City.

When, later that morning, Glickman arrived at the new textile mill facility of Lorber Industries of Texas Inc. at Snyder, more than 800 people already were waiting, and vehicles lined the highway for miles.

Again, he had been told the big crowd might be a bit cranky. Some had driven hundreds of miles to see Glickman and tell him their woes.

Instead, Glickman got a thunderous standing ovation after he walked onto the podium that was bordered by bales of cotton and was introduced.

Butch Nuding, an Aspermont rancher, lamented to Glickman that just 20 years ago, it took 10 calves to buy a new pickup truck. Today, it would take 100 calves to buy a new truck.

Nuding notes that just four huge meat packers control 80 percent to 85 percent of all the beef slaughtered in the United States. With captive supplies of cattle already in their pocket, Nuding says packers can offer whatever they agree upon for cattle.

The Stonewall County rancher then congratulates Glickman for having the fortitude to take on the powerful Iowa Beef Processors, the nation's largest beef packer.

On Aug. 3, 1995 -- only a few months after he became ag secretary for the Clinton Administration -- Glickman initiated a complaint filed by the Packers and Stockyards Administration against IBP and Beef Marketing Group.

The battle is now more than three years old. But only two weeks ago, a USDA judicial judge ordered IPB to "cease and desist" from any arrangement containing a "right of first refusal" that provides IBP may obtain livestock by merely matching the highest previous bid by other packers.

That is at least a start in the right direction and a victory for Glickman and the nation's ranchers.

But there's yet more work to be done, and Glickman is as tenacious as a bulldog when he feels he's fighting for what's right.

The ruling still does not prohibit IBP from entering marketing agreements and does not require IBP to offer the same terms to similar feedyards.

Originated by nine feedyards in central Kansas in 1988, BMG entered into a marketing arragement with the giant Excel packer from 1990-93. But BMG terminated that agreement and developed an agreement with IBP in 1994.

The agreement with IPB prices cattle on the "pratical top" for cattle in Kansas for the week.

Even if another packer bids on the cattle, IPB has been able to obtain the cattle simply by matching the bid.

The USDA judge's ruling now says IBP can no longer use that practice. The victory is at least a start.

"I'm very concerned about concentration in agriculture," Glickman tells Nuding and other cattlemen in a strong voice. "We are going to continue to do a better job of enforcing the Packers and Stockyards Act."

That's the other side of Glickman. After 22 years in Washington, he can be just as tough as he is compassionate when playing with the big guys.

That includes international agriculture.

Glickman favors "normal trade" relations with China -- he thinks "Most Favored Nation" status is a joke.

He told the communist Chinese bluntly: "If you are going to be a player in world trade, then you are going to play by the rules."

Glickman is 26th U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

As of today, Dan Glickman has been on the job as Secretary of Agriculture for 3 years, 4 months and 16 days.

When he was sworn in as the USDA leader on March 30, 1995, Glickman already had served in the United States House of Representatives for 18 years, representing Kansas' 4th Congressional District.

He knows his way around Capitol Hill.

During his tenure in the House, Glickman served almost two decades on the U.S. House Agriculture Committee -- including six years as chairman of the Subcommittee on General Farm Commodities and its predecessor, the Subcommittee on Wheat, Soybeans and Feed Grains.

Glickman worked on farm bills in 1977, 1981, 1985 and 1990. He led the way in such areas as expanding trade in agricultural goods and also championed food safety.

His career in the House also encompassed a two-year term as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, making him the first full committee chairman from Kansas in 40 years.

As chairman, Glickman pursued policies to demystify the intelligence community by holding open hearings, pushing the intelligence community to publicly explain its functions in the post-Cold War era and reducing the number of classified documents.

In addition, Glickman launched a major investigation into the Aldrich Ames spy case. He worked to make reasonable reforms in general aviation product liability laws, strengthen lobbying disclosure laws and develop effective ways to combat crime.

Glickman also was the author of legislation increasing penalties for the destruction of religious property.

Glickman heads a huge and complex department

Back on the road, as Glickman rolls down the highway between Colorado City and Snyder, he reflects on the difference of his long career in the House and now being the head of USDA.

USDA, he readily acknowledges, is a far tougher challenge because of its sheer size. It's like Texas has more disaster because of its size.

"It's a huge bureaucracy. Big and brutal. But not impossible," Glickman says during a relaxed interview. "It's very complicated to manage."

Just consider, Glickman says, that 40 percent of his employees at USDA are with the U.S. Forest Service.

"That's four times the number who are in farm programs," Glickman notes.

In fact, USDA-managed national forests will generate more than $130 billion for America's economy by the Year 2000.

The Food Stamp Program, School Lunch Program and WIC, Women, Infants and Children, also are all under the USDA umbrella. All are enormous programs to manage.

It was Glickman, while still a House member, who was the original author of legislation to reorganize the titanic USDA.

Then, after taking that agency's top position, Glickman was able to continue his work streamlining the USDA as part of the Clinton Administration's Reinventing Government/National Performance Review.

By 1999, under the leadership of Clinton and Glickman, USDA's reorganization will save $4.1 billion, reduce staff by more than 13,000, cut the number of USDA agencies from 43 to 30 and create convenient, one-stop service centers for farmers and ranchers.

Glickman says his priorities are food safety, expanding ag exports, rural development, protecting natural resources and maintaining a nutritional safety net for those in need.

-- USDA has made dramatic improvements in food safety for all Americans through the most sweeping overhaul of meat and poultry inspection in 90 years.

-- Although the drought has made it tough in 1998 and farm prices also are currently are in a slump, farm income actually increased and commodity prices for U.S. agricultural products rose to record levels during Glickman's time in office.

-- In addition to farmers and ranchers, agricultural jobs have increased and are forecast to reach nearly 200,000 by year 2005.

-- Under Glickman, USDA has launched strong actions to improve competition in livestock markets, including price reporting initiatives that assure timely information and a fair and level playing field.

-- The national school lunch and breakfast programs had their first major reform in 50 years under Glickman. School meals that now meet federally established dietary guidelines will improve the long-term health of American children and save taxpayers many billions of dollars over 20 years.

-- USDA is leading national food recovery efforts to help feed the hungry by saving and providing food that otherwise would be wasted.

Glickman has taken aim at better health care, housing and access to information technology in rural areas.

Glickman travels a vast area

The day that started at 5 a.m. in Abilene -- watching Ag Day on the hotel's cable TV -- and went on to stops in Colorado City and Snyder during the West Texas travel, ended late that evening in the Texas Hill Country at Bastrop and Austin as Glickman met farmers there.

"The secretary puts in incredible days. I don't how he does it. His travel schedule is so wild," a Washington staff member says.

By the end of that one day, various datelines appear across the newswire services where Glickman had visited with farmers.

In the days before his travel to the Abilene region, Glickman made stops in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Oklahoma, North Texas, South Dakota, and North Dakota.

"They've got big problems too," Glickman observes of the widespread drought.

Montana and the Dakotas have been in a severe shape for many months.

Just two days after his Abilene area stop, Glickman was in New York State.

Glickman is no stranger to Abilene area

Glickman made his first visit to Abilene as the USDA secretary on April 18, 1995, less than three weeks after being sworn in.

At that time, in suit and tie, Glickman was greeted with much pomp and ceremony -- complete with music upon his entrance -- at McMurry University.

But later in the day, he quickly shed both his coat and tie to visit cattlemen on the regular Tuesday sale day at Abilene Livestock Auction. After speaking to cattlemen, he sat in the downstairs cafeteria eating barbecue and visiting with anyone who wanted to sit down and chat.

Because of a severe thunderstorm in Dallas, his entourage had to drive from the airport there to Abilene the night before. Rather than pay a fee to drop the rental vans -- which would have been costly -- Glickman had the vans driven back to Dallas.

It was an early statement of how he intended to run USDA prudently.

While traveling, Glickman remembers he actually was in the Abilene area many years before that -- even before he was elected to the House.

As a partner in the law firm of Sargent, Klenda and Glickman, he as a young lawyer "had a client in Cisco."

Today, he doesn't remember much about Cisco. But when his close friend, U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, told him off the cuff that Conrad Hilton built his first hotel at Cisco, Glickman seemed surprised.

"Really?" Glickman responded. "I never knew that."

Glickman always downplays his own knowledge of the agricultural industry.

"Charlie Stenholm knows more about agriculture than I will ever know," Glickman says. "He is -- by far -- the most knowledgeable man in Washington on agriculture."

Before being elected to Congress in 1976, Glickman served as president of the Wichita, Kan., School Board. He also served as a trial attorney for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Glickman earned his B.A. degree in history from the University of Michigan and his law degree from George Washington University.

In 1966, Glickman and his wife, Rhoda, who is from Detroit, were married. They have two grown children, Jon and Amy.

"Dan Glickman is a family man -- a wonderful man and human being," Stenholm says.

Glickman, who calls heavily on Stenholm's judgment and counsel, believes Stenholm is poised to take a greater leadership role in Washington -- and if so -- it would help America's farmers and ranchers.

"Congressman Stenholm would make a great chairman of the House Agriculture Committee," Glickman said. "And I would say that about Charlie even if I were a Republican -- which I'm certainly not."

Glickman says he is doing everything in his power to help farmers and ranchers. But he depends on Congress to act in areas where his hands are tied until he gets an appropriation, such as helping ranchers with emergency feed.

Stenholm has introduced legislation to help ranchers with emergency feed for the winter, and he hopes his bill will become law in September.

That legislation could be crucial to cattlemen in the Abilene area.

Meanwhile, while on the road again, Glickman is asked what would make him happy.

Higher ag prices and widespread rain would go a long way.

"Both drought and low farm prices have made this a tough job this year," Glickman notes. "It was sure a lot more fun being Secretary of Agriculture in 1995 and 1996 when prices were higher."

Although widespread rain could start falling any day, perhaps producing a wet fall, Glickman doesn't see any quick fix for farm prices.

"Some 40 percent of U.S. ag exports last year went to Asian markets," Glickman said.

With the currency crisis in Asia, key markets such as Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are greatly hindered in their ability to buy U.S. products because of the currency exchange.

Farmers here are getting just more than $2 per bushel for wheat, about what they sold wheat for 50 years ago in 1948. But that dirt-cheap wheat isn't a bargain in Asia when the exchange rate is 240 or so Japanse yen to one U.S. dollar.

"The number one way to help U.S. agricultural exports would be the approval of the IMF (International Monetary Fund) so they could afford to buy U.S. farm products," Glickman says.

Such global matters are something Glickman wrestles with every day.

"The subject matter is more complicated than I ever dreamed of," Glickman says as his van rolls to a stop for yet another meeting.

No band, pomp or ceremony this time -- just farmers and ranchers desperately wanting to know what assistance USDA can give them in this crisis.

Again, Glickman looks at the Texas sky.

"I promise rain ... soon," Glickman says.

"And when the rain comes, I'm taking full credit," Stenholm quips.

Someone plucks a pathetically small, green cotton boll from a tiny plant and shows it to Glickman. The secretary puts it in the pocket of his trousers.

"I want to take this little cotton boll with me," Glickman said, while making his way back to the van.